Relative wages in coal mines in western Canada and in Montana in 1907. OUTSIDE OCCUPATIONS. STATEMENT OF MR. J. CRAWFORD LYON, OF BALTIMORE, MD. (The witness was sworn by the chairman.) Mr. LYON. Baltimore, Md. The CHAIRMAN. And you appear on the subject of linoleum? The CHAIRMAN. About how much time do you want? Mr. LYON. I suppose twenty minutes will do. The CHAIRMAN. Thirty minutes? Mr. DALZELL. He said twenty minutes. Mr. LYON. I would prefer thirty minutes. I think I will interest you sufficiently so that you will give me thirty minutes. Mr. UNDERWOOD. What is the paragraph you want to talk about? Mr. LYON. Paragraph 337. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I appear before you to point out the apparently overlooked and obscured effect of the application of paragraph 337, Schedule J, on the subject of oilcloth and linoleum, including cork carpet and inlaid linoleum. As it now exists in the phraseology, if under 12 feet wide it bears a specific duty of 8 cents a square yard and 15 cents ad valorem; 12 feet and over, 20 cents a square yard and 20 per cent ad valorem; inlaid linoleum, 20 cents and 20 per cent ad valorem; linoleum of more than one color penetrating the surface, 20 cents and 20 per cent ad valorem. Likewise, I would point out the effect if made to conform to the desires of manufacturers for whom on the 30th of November Mr. H. A. Potter, of Philadelphia, spoke before you and whose utterances as they appear in the record of hearings of that date, pages 2862 to 2866, inclusive, are easily shown to be contradictions of his own public statements two weeks specifically, and for many months generally, before his talk to you. Oilcloth is a coated and painted cloth of cotton or of jute, which is of low first cost, in all widths, with or without a printed figure, and on a varnished surface. The cotton cloths used are produced in this country. in all needed widths, and are cheaper here than abroad, the great bulk of the millions of yards coated and printed being so-called muslin or sheeting 44 to 48 inches square, costing from 4 cents to 5 cents per square yard, as cotton fluctuates. The jute cloths used are plain woven fabrics, known as "burlaps," weighing from 8 ounces to 10 ounces per square yard, counting 12 threads more or less each way per inch, in widths of from 60 to 150 inches, and costing in the primary markets of Dundee and Calcutta from 4 to 5 cents per square yard, the narrowest being about 1 cent per square yard cheaper than the widest of the same weight and count. Current market quotations now or heretofore fix this fact. The existing duty on burlaps over 60 inches wide is 45 per cent ad valorem. Thus, domestic makers of floor oilcloths and linoleum are taxed on an average of 2 cents per square yard on their jute foundation cloth. It can be shown that this is the extent of their contribution to the duties collected on raw materials they use, as the remainder are either duty free or originate in this country, and are cheaper here than abroad, foreign makers using them. Consul J. C. McCunn, of Glasgow, states in his report on the subject that oilcloth and linoleum makers in Scotland use ocher chiefly obtained from America. Rosin is obtained from the United States, and linseed oil is procured from Russia, India, the United States, and Argentina. It is quite clear this committee in 1897 overlooked the fact that the importation of several grades and descriptions of oilcloth would be prohibited by the tax then and now imposed, and this prohibition has applied to five separate descriptions, used throughout the world, and in this country more than in any other, and of which, by the census of 1905, there was produced in this country nearly 75,000,000 square yards, valued at more than $9,000,000. I have here the two extremes [exhibiting samples]. The cloth in my left hand is the production of Messrs. Thomas Potter, Sons & Co., of Philadelphia. It weighs two-thirds of a pound per square yard. Its value is 8 to 9 cents per square yard. The duty provided for it is 8 cents per square yard and 15 per cent ad valorem. Consequently it has been prohibited, so far as importation of it is concerned, and the price at which they sell it is quite discretionary with themselves, and those like themselves engaged in making it. In the other hand I hold a piece produced by the Nairn Linoleum Company, of which Mr. George McNairn is the managing director. It weighs twenty times. the weight of the piece in my left hand, and it sells for ten times. the price of the piece in my left hand, and yet the duty is only 8 cents per square yard and an ad valorem duty of 20 per cent. Mr. DALZELL. What are you advocating, an ad valorem duty or a reduction of the duty or raising it? Mr. LYON. When I have finished you will find my suggestion, if I may be permitted to make one, is to abolish the specific duty, to abolish that penalty which has been put upon certain widths. No tariff ever heretofore provided that there should be a higher duty on cloth 12 feet wide than on cloth less than 12 feet wide. There was produced, according to the census of 1905, of floor oilcloth over 21,000,000 square yards, valued at three and a half million dollars, at an average price per square yard of 162 cents, with a duty on that under 12 feet of 65 per cent ad valorem and over 12 feet of 145 per cent ad valorem. Of enameled oilcloth 11,000,000 square yards were produced, at a value of $1,500.000, at an average price of 134 cents, with an ad valorem duty of 75 per cent. There is no indication in the proposed change in paragraph 337, as printed, that your committee intend to alter this condition by removing the specific tax and the monstrous penalty imposed on widths 12 feet and over, although no tariff act prior to 1897 penalized the width of these goods. Demands of makers. in this country have grown by what they have been fed on, and having overcome all opposition and secured in 1897 the granting of their demands, including the novelty of a penalty on widths 12 feet and over, they now ask that the penalty be applied to 7 feet and over. The effect of 20 cents per square yard and 20 per cent on a floor oilcloth 101 or 74 feet wide, valued at 15 cents per square yard, including 7 cents per square yard for the jute foundation, exceeds a tax of 150 per cent. Although oilcloths for floors are the only kind of oilcloths now produced in this country exceeding 7 feet in width, it may be found desirable or necessary to produce wide table oilcloth and enameled cloth for special purposes, such as curtains or tents for trees, to supply the coming demand Mr. Potter himself speaks of in his advertisements in the trade papers, February, 1908, as follows: Probably the most novel use to which these goods have ever been put is as material for tent-like covers for fruit trees, to protect them from damage by frost. These tree tents are used in experiments to destroy "scale." After covering the affected tree, germ-destroying chemie Is were burned beneath it, the enamel (paint) covering effectually confining the germicide gases. Now, fancy the effect of the tax which Mr. Potter, speaking for manufacturers, asks on widths of oilcloth exceeding 7 feet, that is 20 cents a square yard and 20 per cent, with the cloth used for tables and for tree curtains or tents costing about 8 cents per square yard to produce, and the productive capacity of the works in this country producing painted, printed, or varnished cotton cloth equal to and able to supply the demands of the world. On this point I refer you to Commercial America, of June, 1908, published by the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, as follows: American factories are able to produce all kinds of linoleum and oilcloth to compete in foreign markets with those of British make. In this journal, Commercial America, Potter Sons & Co., G. W. Blabon Company, both of Philadelphia; The Nairn Company, of Newark, N. J.; and the Standard Oilcloth Company advertise and seek in this way buyers in foreign countries for their products. Of the Standard Oilcloth Company, operating five works exclusively in converting cotton cloth into oilcloth, located one each in New Jersey, New York, and Illinois, and two in Ohio, Moody's Manual of Industrial Shares states: Standard Oilcloth Company. Incorporated May 2, 1907, in New Jersey, and succeeded to the assets and property of the Standard Table Oilcloth Company, which was formed in 1901 to consolidate the leading manufacturers of lightweight oilcloth (cotton-back oilcloth) in the United States. The company has a productive capacity of nearly twice the amount of light-weight oilcloth (cottonback oilcloth) consumed in the United States. Capital stock, $6,000,000; 6 per cent preferred, $3,000,000; common, $3,000,000; par value of shares $100. Preferred stock is cumulative. Manufacturers' requirements, as set forth by Mr. Potter, call for 20 cents per square and 20 per cent ad valorem on widths of 7 feet wide and over, applicable to oilcloths for floors, plain, stamped, or printed, including linoleum, corticene, and all oilcloth or other fabrics or coverings for floors made in part of oil. This proposition works out a legislative profit for makers in this country of more than 250 per cent on the cost of production of table oilcloth and enameled cloth 7 feet and over in width, which, though not made now, may be, as required, without difficulty; and oil opaque or semiopaque window-shade cloth, now produced 8 feet wide by coating and painting cotton cloth, valued at about 10 cents per square yard in its finished state, would be taxed 220 per cent ad valorem under the artful provision covering all oilcloth or other fabrics made in part of oil. Mr. LONGWORTH. What business are you in? Mr. Lyox. I am a merchant. Mr. LONGWORTH. Are you an importer of oilcloth or linoleum? Mr. LYON. And an exporter; both ways. Mr. LONGWORTH. Do you manufacture it? Mr. LYON. No, sir; but I have made it my business to know how it was done, and I appeared before the committee in 1890, 1894, and 1897; and on the 30th of last month a hearing was given, in which Mr. Potter appeared for the manufacturers and Mr. Smith, a lawyer of New York, appeared for three or four New York importers, but I did not have my name on the list and was not called, so that I sought the first opportunity I could to come before you and state my side of the case. Should this request for a penalty on widths 7 feet wide and over be withdrawn, the tax of 8 cents per square yard and 15 per cent ad valorem is still a prohibitive tax on floor oilcloth, table oilcloth, and enameled oilcloth, shelf and wall oilcloth, and all cloth of cotton or jute converted into oilcloth by whatever name known, of which, as I have said, the census of 1905 states about 75,000,000 square yards were produced in this country, valued at $9.201,548, averaging a value of 12 cents per square yard. With the large additions to capital and capacity, widely and well known to have been applied to the production of these goods since 1905, a far greater volume and value were produced in the three years since, though no statistics are available. Indeed no statistics are needed beyond quoting Mr. Potter himself on the subject. He said: In face of the traditional excellence of British linoleums and oilcloths Potter goods have a steady and growing market in England and her dependencies, the shipments including all items of the Potter line. The demand for carriage goods particularly is interesting, in view of the exacting requirements of British carriage makers. The success of the Potter organization in building up an export trade and the service that trade did in keeping the Potter wheels turning during the recent depression lends point to Blaine's paraphrase of Washington's famous saying, "In time of prosperity prepare for depression." We now come to linoleum. Mr. RANDELL. Where was that quotation from? Mr. LYON. I am simply repeating the published letter of Thomas Potter Sons & Co. to the trade. He says: The success of the Potter organzation in building up an export trade and the service that trade did in keeping the Potter wheels turning during the recent depression lends point to Blaine's paraphrase of Washington's famous saying, "In time of prosperity prepare for depression." By that I suppose he means "In time of peace prepare for war." We now come to linoleum, including cork carpet, granite plank, and inlaid linoleum. This class of floor covering is produced in this country by the following firms and corporations: The census of 1905 returns in Table 4 the production as follows. The CHAIRMAN. Your twenty minutes has expired. How much more have you got of this? Mr. LYON. I hope I have interested you enough to induce you to extend the time. The CHAIRMAN. Well, proceed. Mr. LYON. These figures are as follows: |